Today and Tomorrow
by Wafflelord3000
Summary: When Rick goes mysteriously missing, can a strange girl in the woods help Carl find his father? And when Carl starts to develop feelings for her, will he be able to reach past her stony silence and make her see that the world isn't what it seems?


**I don't own The Walking Dead, only Abby. This story takes place in season 4 on the episode 30 Days Without an Attack.**

It was a beautiful day. The sun was shining through the trees, casting light shadows on the ground around the prison fences. White cumulus clouds drifted through the skies, blocking the sun for no more than a second. A light breeze flew around the workers as they did their chores. Everything seemed… peaceful, in a way.

Everything except Carl.

Rick was gone. He had gone out to check the snares and hasn't come back.

"He should be back by now! He could be DEAD or a WALKER or WORSE!" Carl yelled at Michonne by the gates. It's always a mystery to him how she stays so calm and collected all the time.

"You will _not _go out there, understand?" Michonne lectured him in a low voice. Carl ignored her, not wanting to follow directions at a time like this. He turned on his heels and ran into the prison without looking back to see her reaction. He _had_ to find Rick! The thought of his dad, dead or slowly being ripped apart by walkers… Grabbing his hunting knife, he made my way to the back of the prison, where Maggie and Glenn were _supposed_ to be keeping watch. Carl rolled his eyes and easily made his way under the fence, realizing what they were doing in the guard tower above. He ran out into the woods, with barely any sense of direction. Carl suddenly felt a staggering pain in his head, rattling around his mind and making his eyes hurt. He felt his vision fade to black as he hit the ground, hard.

Carl awoke with a jolt. The first thing he noticed was that he was up against a big oak tree, and there was... a brown-haired girl..._inspecting_ him. Carl blinked and yelped, struggling to get away from the stranger who was only a few inches away from his face, staring at him with a blank intensity that gave him goose bumps. The strange girl moved back about a foot when she saw him open his eyes and stare at her. She had on a bright red sweatshirt and blue skinny jeans, and she wore a light-gray beanie that was speckled with rusty dots of dried blood. Her long hair was a light, musty brown (think of the color of most Ugg boots) with gold highlights that sparkled in the flickering sunlight. The girl had a skinny frame and high cheekbones, and the shadow of the woods made her expression look dangerous, sorrowful, and beautiful all at the same time. Carl thought she looked mysterious and relatively normal, but the one really strange thing about the girl was her eyes. Her left eye was chocolate brown, almost the exact color of Carl's hair, and her right eye was a fierce green, like crystallized leaves.

"Who the HELL are y-" Carl was cut off by the girl clamping her hand over his mouth.

"Shhhhh! Will you please shut up?! You're going to attract a stumbler!" The girl whisper-yelled in his ear. He pried her hand from his mouth and glared at her.

"Tell me who you-" Carl started. He looked over her shoulder and saw at least five (as she calls them) stumblers coming towards them. He tried to stand up but felt a sharp pain on the top of his head.

"Don't worry," the girl said. "I got 'em." She calmly turned around, still sitting, and threw a small throwing knife at each stumbler, hitting each square in the eye. The girl calmly put her remaining throwing knifes into an inside pocket in her red sweatshirt and turned, sitting criss-crossed, to the point where she was less than a foot away from Carl's face.

"I'm going to ask you one more time… _who are you?!" _Carl growled at her in a low voice.

"Depends who's asking." she said in a light voice with a hint of annoyance. Her emerald and chocolate eyes studied his face carefully, reading every emotion as if he was a book. _She's crazy!_ Carl thought to himself as she blinked slowly, still blankly observing his face.

"Well, you seem tame enough! If you wanted to do somethin' bad, you probably would've done it by now!" she leaned back a little and smiled at him. "My name is Abigail Today, and you are?"


End file.
